An Albuquerque man says he successfully registered his dog to vote in Bernalillo County.

The dog owner said he saw a voter registration booth on the University of New Mexico’s campus a few weeks ago and decided to see how easy it would be to register his dog to vote.

He said he was trying to expose the problems with the registration system. He said he just received the dog’s voter registration card in the mail Wednesday, and it was way too easy.

“They should verify. Somebody should have verified this information and somebody should have come out and took a look at exactly who it was. But I made up a birth date, and I made up a social security number and I had a voter registration card in my hand for Buddy two weeks later,” the dog owner said.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 contacted the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office. They said state law does not require proof of your social, your date of birth, or even your name. But they said what this man did is voter fraud.

They also said they strictly look over all the applications that come from third-party registration agencies before sending out registration cards. But this time, Buddy the dog made it through the system.

“We’re going to have a lot of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be able to vote,” the dog owner said.

expansion of Medicaid violates the Spending Clause and principles of federalism protected under

the 9th and 10th Amendments‖ (Count IV).

5

Judge Roger Vinson, a Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of Florida, has determined that ―The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act‖ (―the Act‖) is unconstitutional.1 Judge Vinson begins his opinion by reiterating the importance of the federalist system. In framing the question before the court, Vinson emphasized that this question is not necessarily about the health care system, but about the federalist system and the ―very important issues regarding the Constitutional role of the Federal government.‖2Supporting this thesis, Vinson quotes Federalist 51 and the 10th Amendment, articulating the Framers intent of a limited federal government.3Vinson states: ―Rather than being the mere historic relic of a bygone era, the principle behind a central government with limited power has ‗never been more relevant than in this day, when accretion, if not actual accession, of power to the federal government seems not only unavoidable, but even expedient.‘‖4 After motions to dismiss, two issues remained: (1) whether the individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause (Count I) and (2) ―[whether] [t]he expansion of Medicaid violates the Spending Clause and principles of federalism protected under the 9th and 10th Amendments‖ (Count IV).5

There’s going to have to be a serious discussion among those 54 and younger concerning the future of benefits, the State of the Union speech, YouCut Ends Unnecessary Government Spending Program (the Presidential Election Campaign Fund) …

Shuler introduced the Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act, H.R. 453, which requires states to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to redraw congressional district lines every 10 years following the decennial census. An equal number of commissioners would be appointed by the minority and majority floor leaders in each state’s legislatures. The appointed commissioners would then elect, by majority vote, the commission chairperson. This legislation requires the commission to use geographical contiguity and compactness of district, rather than political affiliations and the impact redistricting will have on incumbent representatives, as criteria for redrawing district lines. If passed H.R. 453 would go into effect for the 2020 redistricting, not 2010.

“The American people should choose their representatives—not the other way around,” Rep. Shuler said. “The current system of gerrymandered districts has left a patchwork of highly-partisan, ideologically skewed Congressional districts, where Representatives are more beholden to their political party than the constituents they were elected to serve. While most Americans identify with the ideological center, too many of our congressional districts don’t reflect that. These gerrymandered districts often result in representatives from both extremes of the political spectrum being elected to Congress who cannot or will not work together for the benefit of all.”

Rep. Cooper introduced companion legislation to H.R. 453, the Redistricting Transparency Act, which requires all proposed redistricting plans to be available online for review and public comment prior to their adoption. This legislation will increase public participation and accountability in the redistricting process, set to begin in most states within in the next week.

“Together, these two pieces of legislation take steps to create a culture of bipartisanship that has been absent in Washington in recent years,” Rep. Shuler said. “If we are to work together in Washington to find solutions to the challenges facing our country, bipartisanship must start at home with the way our congressional districts are drawn. The result will be a system where the American people—not political parties—have the advantage in our political process.”

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Living in severely gerrymandered districts myself- NC12 and State NC32, I am the first one to raise my hand in support of redistricting reform. However, I’m not so sure this is the best way to go about it. What are your thoughts?